21 successful people who wake up incredibly early

Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla They say the early bird catches the worm, and research suggests there might be some truth to the old adage.

Waking up with (or before) the sun allows executives like Apple CEO Tim Cook and "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary to get a head start on the day, knocking out tasks before the rest of the world has rolled out of bed.

Those "extra" hours with less distractions and fresh energy also give them a chance to do some creative thinking, fit in a workout, and spend time with family. And it should be noted that waking up early doesn't necessarily mean losing sleep.

Here are 21 early risers who may convince you never to hit snooze again.

Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up at 3:45 a.m. and gets a head start on email.

REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

The tech titan is known for getting up early.

According to a Time profile, "He wakes up at 3:45 every morning ('Yes, every morning'), does email for an hour, stealing a march on those lazy East Coasters three time zones ahead of him, then goes to the gym, then Starbucks (for more e-mail), then work. 'The thing about it is, when you love what you do, you don't really think of it as work. It's what you do. And that's the good fortune of where I find myself.'"

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FLOTUS Michelle Obama is working out by 4:30 a.m.

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While the president is known for getting very little sleep, he's got nothing on the first lady, who tells Oprah she starts her days with a 4:30 a.m. workout before her kids wake up.

"If I don't exercise, I won't feel good. I'll get depressed," she says, noting that it's easier to pull that off at the White House, where she has "much more support" than the average person.

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AOL CEO Tim Armstrong starts his day at 5:00 a.m. but tries not to send too many early-morning e-mails.

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The former Google executive tells The Guardian that he's "not a big sleeper" and wakes up at 5 a.m. or 5:15 a.m. every day to work out, read, tinker with the site, and hang out with his middle daughter, who is also an early riser.

Armstrong says he tries to hold off on sending emails until around 7:00 a.m.

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Xerox CEO Ursula Burns rises at 5:15 a.m. to email and work out.

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Burns uses early morning hours to get caught up on emails, getting up at 5:15 a.m. and sometimes working until midnight, according to Yahoo Finance.

GE CEO Jeff Immelt rises at 5:30 a.m. to work out.

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Immelt tells Fortune that he gets up at 5:30 in the morning every day for a cardio workout, during which he reads the papers and watches CNBC. He claims to have worked 100-hour weeks for 24 straight years.

Marchionne wakes up at 3:30 a.m. to deal with the European market, according to a "60 Minutes" profile on his turnaround of Chrysler.

Referring to his schedule and work ethic, one exec is quoted in the FT as saying: "Sergio invented an eighth day, and we work it." In that "60 Minutes" special, another exec says: "When it was a holiday in Italy he'd come to America to work. When it's a holiday in America he goes to Italy to work."

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'Shark Tank' investor Kevin O'Leary wakes up at 5:45 a.m. and checks the Asian and European bond markets.

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"Good investors don't stay in bed in North America with strings untied overseas, because if something happens in London or Tokyo while they're sleeping, everything can change," the investor writes in a post for Business Insider.

After checking the bond markets, O'Leary gets on the elliptical or exercise bike and watches business television for 45 minutes while he works out. This is followed by an hour of reading and business research, and then he heads to work by market open at 9:30 a.m.

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Virgin Group founder and chairman Richard Branson rises with the sun at around 5:45 a.m.

Reuters/Olivia Harris

In an interview with Business Insider's Aly Weisman, Branson reveals that he wakes up at about 5:45 in the morning, even when staying at his private island, leaving the curtains drawn so the sun gets him up.

He does his best to use those early hours to exercise before an early breakfast and getting to work.

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General Motors CEO Mary Barra is in the office by 6 a.m.

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Like her predecessor, Daniel Akerson, GM's current chief executive is an early riser. According to a New York Times profile, she was regularly at the office by 6 a.m. before she even became CEO.

In a post for Business Insider, the Hint Water founder says she's up at 5:30 a.m. "on the dot," to look over her calendar, catch up on unread emails, and make sure nothing urgent has popped up over night.

Once that's done, she sips a double latte and takes a morning hike with her husband and dogs before making her first work-related call at 7:15.

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Virgin America CEO David Cush starts working soon after he wakes up at 4:15 a.m.

Cush describes his morning routine to the AP. He wakes up at 4:15 a.m., sends emails, calls business associates on the East Coast, and that's before listening to Dallas sports radio, reading the paper, and hitting the bike at the gym.

The online-only retail company for kids kicks off every morning with a 6 a.m. (Pacific Time) sale.

That's when its chief executive gets a notification on his phone, which serves as his alarm.

"Part of my night routine is to look at a preview of what the site's going to look like the next day — so the very first thing I do is pull up the site on my phone to make sure they match," he tells Inc.

The former Citigroup CFO writes in a LinkedIn post that she's never more productive than she is at 4 a.m. "I brew a cup of coffee, I keep the lights pretty low, I sometimes light a fire in the fireplace, and I let my daughter's cat sleep next to my computer," she writes.

That's when her mind is clearest, she explains, since she's not yet caught up in the day's internal conversations. Perhaps not unrelated, it's also when she finds she's the most creative. "It is at this time of day that I often have a rush of ideas (some of them actually good)."

Kayak cofounder Paul English gets up by 6 a.m. and meditates.

"I usually meditate for a few minutes to quiet my mind before I get out of bed," he says. "I get up around 6 every morning. After I check email on my BlackBerry, I go exercise. I've been practicing yoga for about 10 years. I built a meditative room in my house."